Jeremiah 31
Jeremiah was known as the “weeping prophet”. His heart was utterly broke by the sin and idolatry of God’s chosen people as a whole. He was broken by the lack of repentance of his people and the judgment that Judah and Israel endured. It is important to remember that Jeremiah had a front row seat to the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC and the ransacking that followed.
With this context, Jeremiah 31 has an extremely uplifting mood and would be quite encouraging to the people of Israel as a whole. Within the first few verses of this chapter, God declares that there will be rest, singing, dancing, rebuilding, and enjoyment of God’s everlasting, loyal love. God then speaks about a great gathering of the people back to Israel. Ezekiel gives us even greater context when he adds that the nation will be one nation and will never be divided again (Ezekiel 37:21-22). God started this work in 1948 when Israel became a nation again. We need to pray that Israel’s heart would be softened and their eyes would be opened to Jesus the Messiah. The Bible prophecies in Romans that there will be a day when all of Israel will be saved (Romans 11:26).
Just how will all Israel be saved? The answer is in the end of Jeremiah 31. The law will be put in their minds and written on their hearts. Through a personal relationship with God. No longer will neighbors teach neighbors, they will have an intimate relationship with God by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. God will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more. The sacrificial system covered God’s wrath, but the death of Jesus satisfied God’s wrath to the point that He will no longer remember the believer’s sin.
The Gospel is first for the Jew and then for the gentile. Israel, as a principle, has rejected Jesus, so God is using the gentile Church to provoke Israel to jealousy (Romans 11:11). God’s heart is for all people (both jew and gentile) to be reconciled by coming to the knowledge of the truth that Jesus is the Messiah.
So what do we do? Be reconciled to God by our One Mediator. Represent Christ to Israel. Pray for Israel and the peace of Jerusalem (Psalm 122). Pray that the scales would be removed from their eyes before the end comes. Read Romans 9-11.